Saturday at NC State is a “Show Me” Game for FSU

When Florida State takes the field on Saturday in Raleigh, NC, the Seminoles should have something to prove– NC State represents a “show me” game for FSU.

Last year Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher said he knew in the days after the Seminoles’ defeat of Clemson that he had something special on his hands.

“When we hit the practice field on Monday they had already forgotten about that game. You could tell they weren’t dwelling in the past, they weren’t relishing in all of the accolades that were being thrown their way,” said Fisher. “We were just back to business and practicing football and that’s when I really felt good about our football team – one that could keep that focus week in and week out.”

This year, however, Florida State is yet to find that same stride, yet to capture what made it so dangerous last year. Coming off this year’s win over Clemson, things have a decidedly different feel.

“To be honest with you, we’re still– we’re still trying to get that edge on,” admitted senior WR Rashad Greene. “It’s something we’re constantly trying to get better at but I can honestly say everyone is making an effort.”

If ever there was a week that Florida State might find it though, if ever the Seminoles were going to recapture their edge– this weekend at NC State is it. Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh is most definitely a “show me” game for FSU.

Since last Tuesday — when starting QB Jameis Winston made his now infamous remark on Florida State’s campus — FSU has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. The team has had to sit and listen as the national media threw every negative word it had at them.

Then Saturday came and FSU had to fight and claw to an extremely emotional win over rival Clemson. The type of win that, as FSU’s head coach has said, can bring a team together. That, however, didn’t stop FSU’s critics from piling on even more.

There have been questions about whether FSU deserves to be number one. There have been questions about why FSU hasn’t been as dominant as it was a year ago. Why the run game has been paltry. Why the defense can’t get off the field on third downs. Why the receivers don’t seem on the same page as the quarterbacks. Why the punter has struggled.

You get the point.

Some in the national media have already written Florida State off as a fraud with a weak schedule pretending to be among the nation’s elite. “Not a playoff team” is the common refrain.

And then there’s the constant harping on the team’s quarterback that will continue to grow louder anytime FSU is on a national stage– which is pretty much every weekend, these days.

“It is just a perfect storm,” said Fisher on Monday. “That is our media world today. That is what it is. They are doing their job.”

If that “perfect storm” of negativity, as Jimbo Fisher calls it, isn’t enough to piss off Florida State– then nothing is.

If that “perfect storm” of negativity, as Jimbo Fisher calls it, isn’t enough to piss off Florida State– then nothing is. If FSU hasn’t closed its ranks and found its “us-against-the-world” mentality by now– it probably won’t find it at all.

Fortunately, this is the perfect weekend to get “it” back.

As if the Seminoles didn’t need a little more motivation, add in what happened the last time Florida State made this trip to NC State. Add in the feeling the players that were on that team still have in the pit of their stomachs when they think of that 17-16 NC State loss. Add in the memories of that locker-room afterward. The memory of that long flight home.

“Dead silent. Whole plane-ride, dead silent,” said senior RB Karlos Williams. “Nobody broke the silence.”

Added Chris Casher, who watched at home with a torn ACL, “I remember watching it on the TV, and seeing that last drive. I keep that in the back of my head when I’m working out, when I’m practicing. When we get [up] there, I want them to feel the way we felt.”

That’s why Saturday at NC State is a “show me” game for FSU. Because if the Seminoles aren’t angry after the last couple of weeks — and anytime they remember their last trip to Raleigh — then, that’s telling.

If FSU is to regain its edge, this will be the weekend.

Across the field, Florida State will match up with a team on the rise, an unbeaten Wolfpack team that feels emboldened after watching FSU struggle last week against Clemson. A team that upset FSU at that stadium and ended the Seminoles’ title hopes just two years before.

If FSU comes out and plays the game its capable of, if the ‘Noles come out on Saturday with an edge — if they regain their mean-streak — they will have a chance to blow the doors off the building and make a statement.

And if they don’t — If FSU struggles and has to scratch and claw, or loses — then maybe it’s time to admit FSU just doesn’t have it this year. That some of the “not a playoff team” talk was right.

Either way, we’ll know by the end of this weekend.

Saturday is a big “show me” game for FSU.